Podcast Episodes

Ambition Today is a podcast show hosted by Kevin Siskar discussing with other entrepreneurial and ambitious people what it means to achieve success, grow your startup, try to change the world, and go after your dreams, today.

While working with new startups in New York Kevin Siskar comes across many ambitious people who are battling impossible odds to try and manifest something they truly believe needs to exist in the world.

Starting out young, today’s guest, Matt Mandell, created his first company at the age of 12. Matt grew up with a supportive family full of entrepreneurs, so Matt was very comfortable with entrepreneurship from the start. He attended college in DC, where he spent the next several years developing multiple companies that were selective to college students.

Entrepreneur, investor, public speaker and author are a few titles that Dr. Dileep Rao is known for. He came from India to America in 1973 for his education, and has been a success ever since. While obtaining his PhD, he started working for an Adventure Capital firm one summer that ended up changing his life. He since then has helped invest in hundreds of businesses, which includes four businesses he started himself.

Today’s guest grew up with Entrepreneurial spirit surrounding him. All of the men in Greg Alterman’s family for generations owned and operated one of the largest grocery stores chains in the South since the early 1900’s.

NASA made history on August 12, 2018, launching the Parker Solar Probe; their first ever mission to touch the sun. Luckily, I was invited by NASA to come down to Cape Canaveral to have a front row seat to the rocket launch! While there, I had the opportunity and pleasure of interviewing Felipe Ruiz, who is the Deputy Lead Mechanical Engineer from John’s Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory.

Did you know that only 17% of all startups have a female founder? Well we are lucky enough to have a female founder on our show today, Alex Batdorf. Alex is a business coach, co-founder of Zip Fit, a company that delivers a perfect fit denim for every body and now the creator of a YouTube series called Get Sh!t Done.

We are exploring the marketing world on today’s episode, with our special guest, Mitch Wainer. He is the creative marketing leader with many accomplishments such as Co-Founding Digital Ocean and being the Chief Marketing Officer at Clubhouse, a project management platform for software teams that provide the perfect balance of simplicity and structure. Mitch is an active advisor and speaker on entrepreneurship and growth marketing to the startup community

Growing up in an immigrant family, Brian Pasalich lived in Chicago, Croatia and even a small town in Montana all by the age of 13, which has allowed Pasalich to have a deeper understanding of the different walks of life that people face. This combined with a passion for helping people led him to his career in financial planning. He is the founder of Foundational as well as the Vice President of MassMutual.

Do you have to be an expert on a product in order to become a successful entrepreneur? Let’s ask today's guest, Adam Tishman. He is a New Yorker through and through, growing up in Manhattan helped his independence from a young age before becoming the co-founder of Helix Sleep.

A successful entrepreneur, speaker, and father of 7, Wes Schaeffer is the person you seek when you want to generate more sales. Wes Schaeffer is a marketing strategist and is known as The Sales Whisperer. He grew up in Houston, TX, served in the Air Force, graduated from A&M and became a successful salesman.

From a small town in Western Kentucky to becoming an entrepreneur on Madison Ave, Terry Young joins us on this episode of Ambition Today. Terry is a successful advertising entrepreneur and the CEO of Sparks & Honey

Anthony Pompliano is the Managing Partner at Full Tilt Capital, an early stage venture capital firm. Full Tilt Capital now focuses exclusively on investing in world-class companies in the blockchain and crypto asset space.

Today we have the pleasure of speaking with Brian Brault; a successful entrepreneur that has been recognized twice in his career by Inc. 500 for building one of the fastest growing companies in America. Currently Brian is the Global Chairman of the Board at Entrepreneurs' Organization.

On this episode of Ambition Today we explore Peter Shankman’s journey. Peter is the perfect example of what happens when you combine creativity with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Peter shows us how ADHD can be a gift and a strong advantage in business. Many know him for founding Help A Reporter Out, (HARO).

From the brand new Fulton Center in downtown Manhattan we bring you Dennis Mortensen. He is founder and CEO at X.ai, an artificial intelligence driven personal assistant named Amy who schedules meetings for you.

Season Two of Ambition Today is happy to welcome Niv Dror, head of social media for Product Hunt. Niv boasts in impressive resume in both startups and finance, stemming from his education at UC Santa Barbara.

In keeping with last weeks' real estate theme, Episode 25 of Ambition Today finds us across the table from Joe Fairless, Real Estate Investor and Host of the Best Real Estate Investing Advice Ever Show.

Over the last 30 years Howard Love has founded 15 companies and invested in over 50 early stage startups. His new book "The Startup J Curve" organizes his experience into the 6 phases startups go through as they grow. Howard also is the Founder & CEO of LoveToKnow, a digital publishing firm with over 30 million monthly visitors.

Kelly Roach is the founder of Kelly Roach Coaching and host of the Unstoppable Success Radio podcast. With a resume of NFL cheerleader, fitness enthusiast, and mother, Kelly doesn’t exactly fit the usual business coach profile.

The godfather of social media, Jonathan Abrams, joins us on this episode of Ambition Today. He is now the founder & CEO of Nuzzel, a new platform to discover the top news from your friends and influencers.

Over the years WeWork has grown to become an $16 billion empire of co-working office spaces that are disrupting the traditional real estate markets all over the world. Our guest today, Jesse Middleton, joined the team as the founder of WeWork Labs, the company’s startup focused community. Since then he has helped the company grow into the giant it is today. Recently he has just joined the venture capital firm Flybridge as a General Partner.

Serial Social Entrepreneur Paul Polizzotto, who is one of the most passionate and dedicated entrepreneurs I know, joins us for episode 19. Paul is the founder and CEO of CBS EcoMedia, which harnesses the power of advertising and transforms it into a powerful engine for positive social change.

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Siskar.co is the home of the Ambition Today podcast and the latest from Kevin Siskar about startups, founders, entrepreneurship, venture capital, and investing.

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